Political Involvement and Literary Theory

A great reader and intellectual, Mario Vargas Llosa also has received international recognition for his non-fiction writing. He has published books and essays of literary theory and reflections on writers and writing. Like his works of fiction, much of Vargas Llosa's non-fiction writing centers on history, politics, and culture. His memoir, El pez en el agua, chronicles his run in the 1990 Peruvian presidential election and his early life in alternating chapters. La civilización del espectáculo, published in 2012, is a critical look at contemporary culture.

Vargas Llosa has written a column in the Spanish newspaper El País since 1990, and has published numerous opinion and political pieces in important periodicals, such as Le Monde and Foreign Policy.